


Flesh and Bone

by pushingcrazies



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 20:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18836500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pushingcrazies/pseuds/pushingcrazies
Summary: No mortal human could let that much power course through their being without suffering the consequences.Or could they?





	Flesh and Bone

**Author's Note:**

> I don't exactly consider this a fix-it fic because I'm fine with Tony's ending in the movie. Nevertheless, I don't buy the theory they wouldn't at least try to save him.

Stephen Strange watches Tony Stark dying without a flicker of emotion.

He knew this was what was meant to be; he knew there was no point in trying to fight it. No mortal human could let that much power course through their being without suffering the consequences. And of course it could only be Tony...

The skinniest girl Strange has ever seen pushes forward with an unusual medical kit. “I can save him,” she insists. Her accent places her as Wakandan, Strange notes with detached interest. What an arrogant child, to think she can reverse this much damage.

“Shuri, please,” Pepper Potts says softly. “I don’t want him to suffer. If it’s better…”

“If I can just stabilize him,” the girl - Shuri - says urgently. She runs a diagnostic tool that looks straight out of Star Trek over Stark. He gasps and chokes, fighting for breath.

“I wish I could help.” Banner limps over, cradling his damaged arm. “But if I go full human you’ll have two humans looking just like that.” His eyes fill with giant tears as he looks down at what could be Stark’s final moments.

Strange suppresses a callous comment, knowing now is not the time to be flippant. He isn’t usually so mindful of other people’s grief, but the world is losing something incredible right now, and -

“That’s it,” Shuri exclaims, seizing a needle from her kit and jabbing it into Banner’s tough skin. She draws out a few CC’s of blood, tapped the air out, re-adjusted the plunger, and jammed it into Tony’s chest, right where the Arc Reactor used to be.

“How -” Banner starts to ask, but Strange interrupts him. “The needle is Vibranium. Of course. Probably the only metal on Earth with a chance of breaking the Hulk’s skin.”

“And she’s hoping my blood will stabilize him enough to work on him,” Banner concludes. “I really hope this doesn’t go wrong.”

His words act as a prediction, though not the one any of them were anticipating. There’s a heart-stopping moment of stillness, then Tony begins to seize, his muscles going rigid as he gasps for breath.

Pepper chokes on a sob somewhere to his right, but Strange ignores her. The seizure only lasts a fraction of a moment, and then Stark settles to the ground, his breathing light and steady. Strange breathes in with him, his lungs aching for air. He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath.

“It worked?” Banner asks, amazed. Always one to state the obvious.

“For now,” Strange responds, voice clipped. His cloak slips off his shoulders and slides delicately under Stark’s limp body. “We still have work to do.” Since when does he use ‘we’ so casually? Since when is he a team player? “We need state-of-the-art -”

“My medical bay was destroyed in Thanos’ last attack,” Shuri breaks in. “They must have rebuilt it since then.” In the five years that they missed.

“Then let’s go.” Strange opens up a portal to what looks like a beautiful surgical room, stocked with devices he doesn’t even recognize.

“I’m coming,” Pepper says immediately.

“Me too,” Banner adds. He holds out his uninjured arm, and the cloak gently floats Stark over to lay him in the crook.

“Fine,” Strange snaps, “but we need to go  _ now _ if you actually want him to live. The rest of the circus can find their own way to Wakanda.” He steps through the portal; Shuri and Pepper dart through, and Banner comes last, limping slightly - yet he is graceful enough to not jostle Stark. He carries Stark to the operating table as Strange flicks the portal closed. With the cloak’s help, they manage to lay him down without a single bump.

Strange starts to examine Stark, then pauses. “Pepper, maybe you should wait out-”

“No,” she interrupts. “I’m staying. He needs me.. I -”

Banner places a gentle hand on her back. “He wouldn’t want you to see him this way.”

Shuri is already calling out things they will need as she cuts away Stark’s clothes, revealing more and more damage. Pepper’s mouth sets in a tight frown; he places a lingering kiss on Stark’s cheek and retreats to the door. Banner steps back and sits down, but doesn’t leave. Fine, as long as he stays out of the way.

Strange gets to work.

\---

They have to take his arm.

That becomes almost instantly clear. There is also damage to his right ribs, right lung, neck, and right ear. Hearing loss in that ear estimated to be almost 80%. Thankfully Tony is right-handed because otherwise his heart would have been toast. More toast than it already is, that is. Bruce hears all this as Strange and Shuri compare findings. Minimal damage to the brain, they concur. Strange will have to do a full panel of tests after Tony has recovered some, to make sure that seizure didn’t destroy anything. For now, the focus is on taking off the dead limb. Everything else - bionic lung, hearing aid, implants for a future prosthetic - will have to wait.

It’s a slow process. Bruce watches silently, barely moving a muscle. He should be over there, helping Strange and Shuri. Tony saved his life more times than he can count, and now that Tony needs him? All he can do is sit here and watch Tony’s chest rise and fall. He breathes in time with Tony, as if he is breathing for him. As long as he keeps going, then Tony will do. It may be magical thinking, but it sure beats trying to pray to a god neither he nor Tony believe in.

After two hours have passed, they are still working. Bruce carefully eases to his feet. Strange is so wrapped up in what he is doing (manually going over the residual limb with nanoparticles that are knitting flesh together to speed up the healing process) that he doesn’t see Bruce move, but Shuri does. She flashes him a tired smile that looks more like a pained grimace. Bruce flashes one back that probably isn’t much better, and leaves through the door Pepper took earlier.

Pepper is still waiting, curled up in a cold-looking corner. They are in some sort of laboratory, full of the sort of tech and gadgets that would turn even Tony’s head. Pepper jumps up from a doze the moment she sees Bruce, but he shakes his head. “He’s stable, but they’re still working. I came to see how you’re doing.”

She ignores the implied question. “What can you tell me?”

He hesitates, then forges ahead. She isn’t going to fall apart on him. She isn’t going to scream or go into hysterics. That was always the hardest part about his time as a doctor. He never trained for it, never learned how to soften the blow of bad news. His gentle demeanour and compassion helped. A little. Still, more than once a distraught wife or father had collapsed in his arms screaming.

She listens to what little he can tell her, closes her eyes, takes a steadying breath. “He’s going to make it,” Bruce finishes lamely, hoping he sounds more convincing to her than he does to himself. Knowing he doesn’t.

Pepper sags with relief. “He’s alive,” she whispers. “But...what will he be like now? Nearly dying in space almost destroyed him. This… I can’t even imagine.” 

“He’s a fighter,” Bruce says. “He won’t give up.” The truth is, he’s wondering the same thing - but for a very different reason. That gamma radiation now coursing through Tony’s veins - thanks to Bruce’s tainted blood - may have made it possible for them to do surgery, but what would be the long-lasting effects? Would there be a little Hulk in Tony now?

Pepper starts to say something else, but stops. The look on her face shifts; a door closes on her emotions. She smiles blandly. “How are you feeling?”

Bruce looks away. “It hurts.”

Pepper doesn’t ask if he’s talking about his arm or something else.

\---

Tony returns to consciousness slowly, like swimming through honey. He thinks dimly that he should be in pain, but all he feels is a vague itchiness on his scalp. He reaches up to scratch it but his arm won’t respond.

“Who’s sitting on my arm?” he asks, but even he can tell his speech is slurred. His mouth is working about as well as the rest of him.

The room comes into focus, and Tony finds himself staring up at a green, anxious face. He smiles drowsily. “Hey big guy. How’s the weather up there?”

“How are you feeling, Tony?” Bruce asks. A smaller, prettier face pops up next to him: Pepper. Tony’s smile widens and he tries to make it seem like less of a grimace. 

“Tony?” Pepper prompts.

“Lopsided,” Tony replies at last. He can feel the difference even through the pain meds pumping through his system, but he doesn’t want to look. He wants to keep the illusion of wholeness for a little while longer.

“Strange had to take your arm,” Bruce says gently, as if Tony couldn’t have already guessed that. “The damage was too severe.”

That brings the world a little more into focus. “Strange operated on me?”

“And Shuri,” Pepper adds.

“A twelve-year-old and a wizard? Where’s my lawyer? Is it too early to sue for malpractice?”

Pepper and Bruce exchange an exasperated look. “He’s still the same,” Pepper says.

Tony uses his left arm to ease himself more into a sitting position. A large green hand immediately reaches out to assist him, while Pepper pushes his pillows to support him. A guy could get used to this.

“You got to keep both of your hands,” Tony quips, and the envy in his voice is only a little real. “Guess I should have had a gamma-induced rage monster buried in my veins.”

The look Pepper and Bruce exchange this time is far more intriguing - it’s like they’re silently debating who should break some terrible news to him. He raises his eyebrows and waits.

“Um, well…” Bruce starts.

“The thing is…” Pepper says

“Shuri  is very, uh, innovative with her ideas, and she moves quickly…”

Tony cocks his head with amused patience. One of them will have to blurt it out eventually, and his money is on Bruce.

“Strange agrees it was probably the only way…”

“She gave you an injection of my blood to stabilize you,” Bruce says quickly, as if speed will soften the blow. “Just a small one.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any side effects,” Pepper says.

“Yet,” Bruce finishes.

Pepper shoots him a glare.

Tony can’t help it - he bursts into laughter.

\---

“You go first.”

“No, you!”

“No, you.”

“How about Nebula?”

“How about no.”

“Y’all’re a bunch of children,” Rhodey sighs. He pushes past the others, leaving them no choice but to follow in his wake.

The area Stark now lives in is different from the one where he spent weeks convalescing. He is in his own little suite, complete with bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, and a lab where he can build and tinker with his own arm. Shuri laid the groundwork, but Stark made it clear he wanted to create his own arm.

They of course find him in the lab, trying to tighten a screw with his left hand. Shuri gave him a robot with a similar purpose to DUM-E back home, but Stark has the little guy switched off and tucked away in the corner. He claims he doesn’t like the robot’s attitude, which is to say that the robot doesn’t have one, and Stark doesn’t like that. Stark is lost without a robot to argue with and harass.

Tony looks over their motley crew and smirks. “Come to give me a little pep talk about being a cyborg?”

Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, and Bucky all wince simultaneously.

“We are too obvious,” Nebula snarls.

“Don’t sweat it, Smurfette,” Tony says nonchalantly. He sets aside the screwdriver and turns to face them. He taps his chest. “You guys forget this isn’t my first rodeo with electronic body parts.”

“It ain’t the same thing.” Rocket jumps up on the workbench and takes up the abandoned screwdriver. For all his talk about being a short-lived rodent, he’s still as spry as ever. “That thing was keepin’ you alive. This is just to make you feel more human. You don’t really need it.”

“If you break that, you buy it,” Tony tells him. Rocket scoffs. Tony continues, “So, what? Are you guys going to tell me I don’t need the arm to be whole?”

“That wasn’t the plan,” Rhodey says with a glare at Rocket. “We were mostly going to go over maintenance and care.”

“Advice,” Bucky adds quietly.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Tony says. “I’m not freaking out about losing an arm, and I know a thing or two about how to maintain my equipment.” He wiggles his eyebrows at Rhodey, who looks away to fight a smirk. “So skedaddle.” He plucks the screwdriver out of Rocket’s hands. “That means go.”

Rocket and Nebula don’t need to be told twice. They leave with a few choice words, Rocket’s aimed goodnaturedly at Tony, Nebula’s more reserved for this “stupid idea.” 

Rhodey starts to leave as well, but he notices that Bucky is lingering. Alarm bells sound in Rhodey’s head. Between Bucky going into hiding and then The Snappening and then Tony’s recovery, the two of them have never been alone before. Rhodey steps back into the shadows, alert for any sign of a showdown.

“It’s not the same as taking care of a suit of armor,” Bucky says quietly. He runs a hand over the smooth metal of Tony’s new arm. “When it’s on, it’s a part of you.”

“The suit was always a part of me,” Tony says. “Even after I got rid of the Arc Reactor.”

Bucky shakes his head. “ From what Steve told me, you left it behind for five years. I guess you could leave your arm off for five years, but would you feel whole?”

Tony purses his lips in annoyance. “Is Cap gossiping about me behind my back?”

His tone is almost teasing, and Rhodey can’t suppress a small jerk of surprise. Bucky’s eyes widen slightly, and then he gives a tiny smile. “Steve’s favourite pastime is stirring up trouble and then telling me all about it afterwards. Or dragging me into it.”

Tony huffs a laugh.”That figures.”

There’s a long pause as both men studiously do not look at each other, focusing instead on the arm between them. Neither seems tense, just a little awkward. Rhodey is just about to slip out when they both start to speak at the same time.

“If you ever need -”

“Listen, Barnes -”

A pause. “What were you saying?” Bucky asks.

“No, you go ahead.”

“Yours sounded important.”

Tony starts to cross his arms, remembering belatedly that he only has one. He puts his hand on his hip instead and looks away. “I was just gonna say… on this little time-hopping adventure, I… I got a chance to do something I thought was taken away from me forever. And I, you know, am, uh, I think they call it ‘sorry’? I think that’s what you’re supposed to say. I don’t know, I don’t do this very often.”

Bucky looks caught between amusement and amazement.

“But anyway, sorry for taking out my daddy issues on you, you know, before. Although you also killed my mom and I’m still pretty angry about that, but, uh, I know it wasn’t really...you. Who did it.” Tony clears his throat. “So yeah.”

“So yeah,” Bucky echoes. “Thanks. I think.”

“Do we hug it out now?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then we’re done here.” Tony picks his screwdriver up again and goes back to tinkering.

Bucky pauses. “Do you want some help?”

“Do you know a lot about bioengineering advances from the last ten years, and how to simulate nerve endings so that a prosthesis engenders the same electrical impulses in the brain that generate the sense of tactility?”

“No,” Bucky says. “But I do know not to use your Vibranium arm to plug in an electrical cord without looking. If your fingertip goes into one of the sockets, your hair won’t sit right for weeks.”

Tony points his screwdriver at Bucky. “Good advice, thanks. Now go away. And if you see Banner, send him my way. I got work for him.”

Rhodey slips out before they realise he’s been watching them this whole time. Tony’s road to recovery still has a long way to go, he knows, but it looks like he’s taking the right steps forward.

**Author's Note:**

> Man I could have gone on and on (a scene with Morgan, a scene with Peter, etc) but I'm going to stop with this and work on a different project for a while. If the project lasts long enough maybe I will incorporate elements of this story into that one.
> 
> Thanks to KiranInBlue for the beta.


End file.
